


Here Yet Gone

by Arytra



Category: Power Rangers
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 13:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arytra/pseuds/Arytra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mix of Aquitian tech and turning himself into an adult did a number on Billy, more than anyone could have guessed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here Yet Gone

**Author's Note:**

> I swear that a subtitle to this could have been a mix of "Arytra's been working too much" and "The anniversary of losing her favored client hit her hard". I apparently needed to write something like this. I love my job, but I needed to get some of the emotion from it out.

“The Zords, Bridge! I need to go check the Zords!” Billy Cranston looked absolutely panicked as he tried to get up and head for the door, but he was stopped and encouraged to go sit back down. “They’re keeping me here and the other Rangers…”

“I will go check on them,” came the answer. Adrian Carson had been told he looked like his father, but he had a feeling most of this had to do with Billy’s mind. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “But you need to stay here.”

“But I know how they work,” Billy said. “I helped build them. Kat…”

“I’ll let Kat know there’s something wrong too,” he promised. He wouldn’t, of course, Kat had been retired for years and they were on their third set of Zords at SPD which, from what he understood, was actually quite remarkable. Apparently a set of Zords a year was traditional and it had been over a decade since they’d needed a new set. Billy still looked upset and it hurt Adrian to see him that way. “Unc… Billy, trust me. I’ll look over it.”

Billy nodded and relaxed, sinking back into his chair and letting Adrian relax a bit. Once he was sure that Billy was going to be okay, he headed back over to where his doctor was and sat down next to her. She set a hand on his arm and gave him a small smile. “We’re doing everything we can for him, but Aquitian science was rough on him.”

“He’s not going to get better then?” He asked, looking over and she sighed.

“We’ve been through this, Adrian. He’s not just normally sick. If he was, we could have used the Power to heal him, but that’s not what this is. When he found a way to deage himself in order to help the others, it messed with him. A lot,” she said.

“Danni, I don’t know what else to do,” he admitted. “I’m not as smart as my dad and I keep waiting for him to realize that I don’t babble and that I don’t understand what he’s talking about.”

“Worry about it when it happens, but he’ll probably forget about it if you just leave for a few minutes,” she said honestly. “Trust me, Adrian. The Power’s effect on the human body is the science I went into. Grandma Dana started showing me things when I was four. I know what I’m talking about.”

“I know,” he said. “I just don’t want to lose him. He was one of the first great Power Rangers! He mentored my dad. He was involved in building SPD!”

“And…” She asked, squeezing his hand a bit.

“And he was my favorite uncle,” he admitted. He glanced over to see Billy talking to someone about something he couldn’t understand. “And he doesn’t even know me. How long until he forgets about Dad too?”

She didn’t answer right away and he let it drop. He was smart enough to know that that meant it wouldn’t be long now. He sighed and let go of her hand. He glanced over to see Billy looking over. “Bridge! I think I have some ideas on this new set of Zords! Come look!”

Adrian pushed back the pain and forced a smile. “Be right there!” He promised. He looked at Danni and saw that her pain matched his own. “Danni? Thanks.”

She smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “I have some other patients I need to look at, but I’ll be back in an hour. Let me know if he needs ‘Dana’.”

“I will,” he promised, heading back over. He sat down and forced the smile into place as Billy set a bunch of incoherent notes down at him. He looked at him expectantly and Adrian was pretty sure that they weren’t translatable to someone who knew what they were talking about, let alone him. Everything was shaky and didn’t make sense. “Do you mind if I hold onto these?”

Billy waved at him to assure him that it was okay before starting on the next batch. He paused, but didn’t look up. “I think we should call Adam. Adam might have an idea.”

“Maybe later,” Adrian offered. It would be actually be never considering that Adam had died two years before. If he kept pushing it, Adrian would try to turn it around so that he wanted Ethan’s opinion instead. He could call Uncle Ethan pretty easily. For now, Billy seemed to be fine with that answer and went back to drawing. Adrian just waited patiently, not really knowing what else to do. That was how it had been for the past several years and it would get worse in the future. He could only hope that Billy was able to be happy and not realize it for the rest of his time. That’s what Adrian was there for though: To help him as much as possible.

“Bridge?” Billy asked.

“Yeah?” He asked.

“What are you doing here, anyway? Didn’t you just get a new son? I remember Sky said something about it. A lot. Something about not letting it in here because he might get hurt from us not paying attention,” Billy said with a smile.

“Sky’s watching him,” he said. “He thought I’d need to help you today.”

Billy nodded at that. “I’d like to see him sometime.”

“You will,” Adrian promised. “And he’ll love you.”

Billy smiled warmly. “That’s what Kim said when she handed Trisha to me. ‘You’ll be a great uncle, Billy. Now watch Trisha while I get some more diapers’.”

“Sounds like Aun… like Kim,” he said. Billy reached out and put his hand on Adrian’s.

“You’ll be a great dad. I just know it,” he said and for a minute, Adrian thought he saw a bit of coherency in the old man’s eyes, but it died away too quickly for him to be sure. He swallowed the lump in his throat and pushed through.

“Thank you,” he said and Billy went back to ignoring him, turning to more of the invisible voices to argue every so often and leaving Adrian feeling very alone. When Danni made her way back, he looked at her. “I need a break.”

She looked at him worriedly and called over one of the other caregivers, clocking out for a minute and helping him outside. “Adi?” She asked. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

He looked at her and words couldn’t come out right away. He managed to force it back to get the words out. It wasn’t coherent. Just a splatter of words like “Dad” and “Baby”, but she seemed to understand and pulled him toward her. He finally managed to get the words out. “It was like he knew.”

She just held onto him. “Maybe he does know. When the baby is born, we’ll show him,” she promised. He just nodded and let her rock him back and forth. Five months. Billy just needed to wait out five more months and he could show his uncle his own achievement. Even if Billy didn’t understand completely, it would mean the world to Adrian to show him. He wanted to be able to show his baby pictures of it and Uncle Billy, even if the latter was mostly gone.

“He won’t understand,” he whispered. Danni leaned over and kissed his temple.

“No, he won’t,” she agreed. “But you will. And watching the baby and him play will remind you of when you were little.”

“I still have no idea what he was talking about,” Adrian said. “But I liked the attention.”

“You’re smarter than you give yourself credit for. You just take after both of your dads. Listen, we’ll finish up today and stay out of SPD for the night. It will help you take your mind off things.”

He absently nodded, but looked back at Billy as he schooled his emotions. “Danni? Do you think he’d be disappointed that I’m not more like dad?”

“I think,” she said with a tone rivaling the one her grandmother got when Dana thought someone was feeling foolish. “That he’d be happy that you’re a good person. That’s what mattered.”

“Yeah,” he said and headed back over, forced smile on his face. “What are we working on?”

Billy frowned at him. “The computers,” he said. Adrian quickly jumped in.

“Oh right,” he said quickly and Billy’s frown disappeared. “Why don’t you show me what we’ve got?”

Danni watched from the doorway and bit her lip. She couldn’t tell Adrian just how fast it was progressing. She didn’t even want to admit it. She glanced up at the ceiling. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” she whispered toward the Power that her grandparents had always told her about. “But give him just a little more time.”

There wasn’t an actual acknowledgement, but she tried to believe that the Power was listening. Five months. That’s all he needed. She held her womb and sighed. For all of the things that Billy had done in his life, it wasn’t asking for much. She just had to hope that the Power agreed.


End file.
